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Opera on the USA West Coast

10K views 46 replies 15 participants last post by  mountmccabe 
#1 ·
From Seattle to San Diego, there are many vibrant opera companies on the west coast of the United States.

Where have you been? What are you looking forward to?
 
#2 ·
We are still in the middle of the 2015/16 seasons, but several companies have announced their 2016/17 seasons:

Seattle Opera: Le comte Ory, Hansel und Gretel, La traviata, Káťa Kabanová, and Die Zauberflöte

San Francisco: Andrea Chénier, Dream of the Red Chamber (world premiere), Don Pasquale with Lawrence Brownlee, Věc Makropulos with Nadja Michael, Aida with Leah Crocetto, Madama Butterfly, The Source, La voix humaine with Anna Caterina Antonacci, Rigoletto, Don Giovanni with Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, and La bohème.

Los Angeles Opera: Macbeth, The Source, Akhnaten, Wonderful Town, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Salome with Patrica Racette, Les contes d'Hoffmann with Vittorio Grigolo and Diana Damrau, Tosca with Sondra Radvanovsky, and Thumbprint.
 
#3 ·
In 2012 I went to Seattle Opera to see Attila with John Relyea.



At the time Relyea had a very close relationship with the opera house and every year they would stage an opera which show-cased his talent e.g. Don Quichotte, Bluebeard's Castle and Aleko. I only know this as Director Speight Jenkins (who has retired now) mentioned it in an online interview.

This was the first time I had seen opera in the US and I had a fabulous time. After every show (I saw it three times), Speight Jenkins would hold a Q&A with the audience who had attended that performance. This was held in a lecture theatre. If people wanted to praise him, didn't like something or were curious about something, he answered them. He waited until everyone had had their say and it was a brilliant way of engaging with fans.

The city is wonderful, the natives are friendly and if you concentrate, the language isn't too much of a problem. ;)
 
#5 ·
In 2012 I went to Seattle Opera to see Attila with John Relyea.
Nice! I am going back to Seattle in a few months and will see Seattle Opera for the first time. I am really looking forward to it, and will be sure to comment after.

Thus far, though, as far as the West Coast is concerned, I have only seen opera in the San Francisco Bay area.

The San Francisco Opera is the major company here, and has been around since 1928. The War Memorial Opera House opened in 1932, was renovated in 1992, and has recently been getting some seating renovations in the off season. It currently holds a little over 3000 people. Their main stage season is split, seven productions in repertory in the fall, and three more centered in June. This year marks the first year of SF Opera Labs, with chamber operas and related performances at the 300-seat Taube Atrium Theater.

At the War Memorial I really like the Grand Tier/Dress Circle for the clean sight-lines and clear sound, but I have also enjoyed seats in the Orchestra section. The cheapest seats in the house are the $26 (or so) balcony side. There are also 200 standing room tickets available day of for $10 each.

The upcoming summer season.
Eleven performances of Carmen, in the Calixto Bieito production seen around the world (and available on DVD from the Liceu), with two different casts.

Jenůfa, starring Malin Byström in the title role and Karita Mattila as Kostelnička. Jiří Bělohlávek conducts; the production by Olivier Tambosi that has been seen all over (and available on DVD from the Liceu).

Don Carlo, conducted by music director Nicola Luisotti with a cast that includes Michael Fabiano, Ana María Martínez, Mariusz Kwiecien, and René Pape.

I really want to see all three!
 
#4 ·
Haven't been, but I'm interested in all of the above.

I do feel like I've experienced the Long Beach Opera by proxy. A few years before I left Chicago, Andreas Mitisek, the director of LBO, assumed directorship of the Chicago Opera Theater, and made a practice of importing at least one LBO production per season "out of the box", bringing over the same principal vocalists and sets, all under his stage and musical direction. Recommended, but be prepared for edgy and thought provoking, borderline regie. Here are my reviews of the COT versions: http://www.talkclassical.com/24203-glass-house-usher-kicks.html?highlight=Usher
 
#11 ·
The San Diego Opera is just over 50 years old now and got quite adventurous for a while (they even did Henze in their early years!) however financial issues almost closed the company about two years ago. A significant part of the board decided that it was no longer feasible to maintain a company and made arrangements to shut down the company. Fortunately some cooler heads prevailed, there was a substantial crowd funding initiative, and the company survived but with the board nay-sayers and company director having left. Their season is smaller now and less adventurous but with still some interesting choices. This year it is Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Jake Heggie's Great Scott with libretto by Terrence McNally with a cast that includes Frederica Von Stade!
 
#18 ·
hello, 2 questions. did any one attend "the magic flute" in LA. in 2014? the la opera co. had a ad on line and it looked different. 2) can any one compare the Pittsburgh opera to LA( Los Angeles) opera?
reason: moving to la in a few mons from the 'Burgh.
thanks of the info
 
#20 · (Edited)
In addition to SF Opera there are a good number of other opera companies in the Bay area.

West Edge Opera has been around since 1980, and starts their two-opera Opera Medium Rare season tomorrow: Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Leoncavallo's La bohème. Two concert performances each, with a reduced orchestration (from the picture recently posted it looked like piano and string quartet). They also do a summer festival that also focuses on less-frequently performed operas; this year has Janáček's Příhody lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen), Thomas Adés' Powder Her Face, and Handel's Agrippina. This year's performances will all be at the 16th Street Station in Oakland.

Last year their festival was As One, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and Lulu. The latter two were cut to about two hours performing time, and Lulu in a reduced orchestration, but the others were written for small ensembles.

Another company in the area is Opera Parallèle. The current season started with the world premiere of Amazing Grace by Christopher Pratorius (a Hands-On production, done as educational outreach, with students from a K-8 school, the end result fully staged and with their normal high production values). Coming soon are Champion by Terrence Blanchard (a co-production with SF-Jazz) and The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies. Their first production was in 2007, and have been doing two or three productions a season since 2010-2011.

The San Francisco Symphony does some opera, last year I saw a semi-staged Fidelio with Nina Stemme and Brandon Jovanovich; it seems like they do one semi-staged opera or classic musical a year; this season it is Bernstein's On The Town.

The ODC Theater occasionally hosts opera productions, most recent was Left Coast Chamber Ensemble's first production, with Volti, of the world premiere of Kurt Rohde's Death with Interruptions. They also hosted SF Lyric Opera's production of The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang and premiered Jack Perla's Love/Hate in 2012.

I have not yet seen anything by the following companies:

Island City Opera just finished their run of Rigoletto, coming soon is (Puccini's) La bohème. They perform in Alameda and this is their second year; in 2015 they performed Lucia di lammermoor and a double-bill of Il tabarro and Il signor Bruschino.

Festival Opera has announced one upcoming production, the Star Trek version of Die Entführung aus dem Serail in August 2016. This season marks their 25th anniversary. Last season included Ariadne auf Naxos (performed in Walnut Creek) and a double-bill of Holst's Savitri and Perla's River of Light (performed in Oakland).

There's also West Bay Opera, in Palo Alto. Their current season had a Rigoletto in October, Yevgény Onégin in a couple weeks, and Madama Butterfly in May.

Further down is Opera San Jose. Tosca and Le nozze di Figaro have been completed, upcoming is Carmen and A Streetcar Named Desire. The company started in 1978 as San Jose State University Opera Workshop; their first season as OSJ was 1984-85.

I am sure there is more; I am still exploring!
 
#21 ·
I got a flyer for Pocket Opera today! Their 39th season opens Sunday. Everything is performed in English; it sounds like they do their own translations. The libretti are available online; they have performed all of these operas before. Their seasons are fairl adventurous!

02/28 - Von Flotow: Martha
04/10 - Verdi: King For A Day
04/24 - Handel: Giulio Cesare (in concert)
05/15 - Leoncavallo/Von Suppe: I Pagliacci/My Fair Galatea
06/05 - Verdi: Rigoletto
07/10 - Offenbach: La Vie Parisienne

Dates are for the first performance (in Berkeley). In each case there is one or two more performances in San Francisco.
 
#23 ·
KQEN has an article about SF Opera Labs and other "alternative" programming and events.

I had a real sinking feeling reading this

The room can be configured in a variety of ways, and the challenging acoustic - the 30-foot-high ceiling is great for monumental physical artworks but less forgiving on the human voice - is rectified by an acoustic system of 24 microphones and 75 loudspeakers discreetly placed to adjust reverberation. Made by Berkeley-based Meyer Sound, the system can be optimized for, among other things, spoken text versus sung lyrics just by tapping on a screen.
I know a number of great music halls around the world use Meyer Sound systems - including Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Teatro Colon, as well as Davies Symphony Hall - but they do so (to my understanding) when incorporating electronics or spoken text in their otherwise acoustic performances. They aren't fixing a disastrous acoustic space by always using amplification.

I mean, I doubt I'll go to another of SF OperaLab's Pop-Up events again. And I really want to see Svadba, but I don't know if I am interested enough if it is not going to be unamplified singing. But who knows.
 
#24 ·
As a follow up, my concerns were unwarranted. I saw Svadba last night (review in another thread) and the singers did not have mics of any kind. Everything sounded clear, natural, and lovely.

The Taube Atrium Theater is a large, boxy room with high ceilings. The Meyer sound system is apparently employed to work on how sound resonates in the room. There were a couple times when I thought I was hearing unnatural sound, but in each case it shortly became clear that it was a new singer starting up. Svadba calls for a wide range of vocalizations and approaches to singing.

I'd still like to be in the room for A/B demonstrations, but I can also understand that that sort of behind-the-scenes generally doesn't make sense.
 
#26 ·
I just realized one reason the Don Carlo on June 15th had such good seats available; Celebrating David, the Gala for Gockley is on the 16th.

I've also got a ticket for Jenůfa on the 14th, so I'd have to manage three nights in a row at War Memorial Opera House.

Renée Fleming
Ana María Martínez
Karita Mattila
Patricia Racette
Nadine Sierra
Heidi Stober
Susan Graham
Daniela Mack
Dolora Zajick
Michael Fabiano
Brian Jagde
Simon O'Neill
Eric Owens
René Pape

with Frederica von Stade and Samuel Ramey as MCs, and Nicola Luisotti, Jiří Bělohlávek, John DeMain, and Patrick Summers conducting.
 
#27 ·
I had my first visit to Seattle Opera in early May. I was there to see Der fliegende Holländer, which I reviewed in another thread.



If McCaw Hall doesn't look that impressive from the outside, it is in part because it is packed tightly in Seattle Center. This does mean it is only a short walk from the Space Needle, KeyArena, and the Experience Music Project Museum. And approaches from Seattle Center side there's some nice scenery including a large fountain and some lovely green space. Out in front there is an art installation called Dreaming in Color by Leni Schwendinger (I missed seeing it lit up by arriving almost too late for the opera).

It was renovated in 2003, and was reopened with a production of Wagner's Bühnenweihfestspiel, Parsifal, quite appropriate given the company's dedication to his work. After the renovation it now holds just under 3,000 patrons. As you enter there is a hanging sculpture An Equal and Opposite Reaction by Susan Size.



In the hall there is a large orchestra section with side galleries, and then two upper tiers (the front of the first tier is called the Dress Circle), along with a few small side boxes. I found the sound quite good, even high up. The audience was quite noisy, but I have no idea how typical this was. I can't even blame it on Holländer running without intermission as people were disruptive throughout.
 
#28 ·
8 minutes of highlights of San Francisco Opera's Don Carlo. These are likely from a dress rehearsal; I had a brief write-up of the second performance in another thread.



Note the fancy period costumes, minimal sets, and everyone mostly just standing there.

SFO's youtube feed also has a shorter highlights video for Carmen, and shorter clips from Jenůfa.
 
#29 ·
Local classical station KDFC broadcasts and then streams recordings from San Francisco Opera (and the SF Symphony). Opera performances typically show up several months after the performances, and remain for a month after airing.

Recently available is SFO's Usher double bill from December (which I reviewed); Gordon Getty's The Fall of the House of Usher and Claude Debussy's La chute de la maison Usher, in Robert Orledge's completion. I really did not enjoy the former (here available as part 1) but I really liked the latter (part 2).

It might be the fall before SFO's summer season of Carmen, Jenůfa, and Don Carlo are broadcast.
 
#30 ·
Local classical station KDFC broadcasts and then streams recordings from San Francisco Opera (and the SF Symphony). Opera performances typically show up several months after the performances, and remain for a month after airing.

Recently available is SFO's Usher double bill from December (which I reviewed); Gordon Getty's The Fall of the House of Usher and Claude Debussy's La chute de la maison Usher, in Robert Orledge's completion. I really did not enjoy the former (here available as part 1) but I really liked the latter (part 2).

It might be the fall before SFO's summer season of Carmen, Jenůfa, and Don Carlo are broadcast.
That's good to know. These have had some fantastic reviews.
 
#32 · (Edited)
San Francisco Opera has announced their casting for their June 2018 Ring Cycles.

The cast includes:
Wotan - Greer Grimsley
Fricka - Jamie Barton (also Waltraute in Götterdämmerung)
Alberich - Falk Struckmann
Sieglinde - Karita Mattila
Siegmund - Brandon Jovanovich (he is also Froh)
Brünnhilde - Evelyn Herlitzius
Siegfried - Daniel Brenna

Former music director Donald Runnicles returns to conduct. This is the production by Francesca Zambello recently seen at Washington National Opera, and previously seen at SFO in 2011.
 
#37 ·
From the SFO press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 17, 2017) - San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced plans for the 2017-18 repertory season. The Company's 95th season will open Friday, September 8 with a gala performance of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot led by Maestro Luisotti and an international cast starring Martina Serafin, Maria Agresta and Brian Jagde. On the occasion of this special evening, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce their signature event Opera Ball 2017, presented in honor of Nicola Luisotti, who concludes his tenure as the Company's music director at the end of the 2017-18 Season.

San Francisco Opera's new season features the highly anticipated world premiere of Girls of the Golden West by composer John Adams; the return of Francesca Zambello's production of Richard Wagner's epic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung); bold new productions of Richard Strauss' gripping music drama Elektra and Jules Massenet's sensual Manon; and revivals of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot and Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. All performances will be presented at the War Memorial Opera House.
On Elektra:

On September 9, Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 1909 opera Elektra surges back onto the War Memorial Opera House stage for the first time in two decades in a provocative new production by celebrated English director Keith Warner. This psychologically complex and vocally formidable opera requires lyric artists of the first rank and San Francisco Opera has assembled a superlative cast that includes soprano Christine Goerke, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and soprano Adrianne Pieczonka, along with bass-baritone Alfred Walker in his Company debut and tenor Robert Brubaker. The staging of this co-production with the National Theatre in Prague and the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe will be directed in revival by Anja Kühnhold. The creative team features the work of set designer Boris Kudli?ka, costume designerKaspar Glarner, lighting designer John Bishop and video designer Bartek Macias.
SF Chronicle has more details; eventually I'll be able to link to the press release.
 
#38 ·
The booklet for West Edge Opera's current festival (with last performances this weekend) reveals the program for next summer's festival:

Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten, with William Burden and Hadleigh Adams
Mata Hari, a new work by Matt Marks. It premiered at the Prototype Festival in NYC earlier this year. Directed by librettist Peter Peers, and starring Tina Mitchell.
The third work is Luca Francesconi's Quartett, from 1991. It will be directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, and will star Heather Buck.

I would love to hear Burden and Adams again, and I want to see everything Pulitzer directs, so it sounds like they've got me interested, despite a disappointed 2017 festival.

During the pre-opera talk for Frankenstein, general director Mark Streshinsky said that in 2019 they would be presenting Breaking the Waves by Missy Mizzoli.
 
#39 ·
I live in San Francisco. I've seen La Cenerentola, Madama Butterfly, Le nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte and Falstaff. I have a hard time going to the opera. I get so uncomfortable in the seats. I'll always go for Mozart, although I disappointingly missed Don Giovanni this year. All productions except Falstaff were great. I found Falstaff dreadfully boring. I had avoided a recording of it for years afterwards, but have recently discovered it and love it. It must have been a poor performance.
 
#41 · (Edited)
So glad that Falstaff finally won you over. It needs a tight orchestra and conductor, even if stripped down (the orchestra not the conductor!) It doesn't seem to demand a lot of the singers apart from the fiendish ensembles, but good comic acting is a must, and I guess surtitles to get the laughs.

You guys seem to do pretty well on the West Coast. Thankfully I made it to SFO a few times during my business visits back when.
 
#40 ·
That Falstaff was the season before I moved here, but I saw that Cenerentola! I quite liked it. Sorry you missed Don Giovanni. I saw a performance and found a lot to enjoy (notably Erwin Schrott's Leporello), but overall it wasn't that great.

The best performances I've seen at SFO were of Jenůfa, Don Carlo, and Norma. I'm really looking forward to seeing Elektra, and of course, the Ring.

And I hear you about the seats. I recently sat in the Grand Tier for a different event and found the seats themselves a big upgrade: wider and with more legroom. They're also among the best for sound in this large, unforgiving theater. Of course they're also among the most expensive seats for opera, ha.
 
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